Cross transplantation provides kidneys for 4

It was the first time the procedure has been carried out Mexico's public health system

Friday, November 24, 2017

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Four patients who were suffering from chronic renal failure can now look forward to healthier lives after they received kidneys from donors they had never met or seen before.

Known as cross transplantation, the procedure is used when a suitable, matching donor cannot be found from within a patient’s family. It was the first time it had been carried out in Mexico’s national public health system.

Thirty-two transplant surgeons, 16 anesthetists and 32 surgical nurses worked across eight operating rooms at the Juárez de México Hospital in Mexico City to perform the procedure.

One of the recipients of a new kidney was Marisol Cárdenas Medina. Although her mother, Olga Medina, was a willing donor her kidney was not compatible.

She initially rejected the idea of donating her kidney to a stranger, but when Olga Medina realized that by doing so she would help save her daughter’s life, she decided to go ahead.

“As neither of my kidneys are compatible with Marisol, I donated to Mr. Victor Manuel González Ramírez and my daughter received an organ from Martha Guadalupe Rincón Alemán,” she explained.

The head of the hospital’s transplant unit Andrés Bazán Borges said that for the procedure to be successful each donor-recipient pair needed to be assessed for compatibility with another pair in a similar situation.

The four pairs that were operated on were matched in a selection process that considered a total of 40 donor-recipient pairs and, according to the son of one of the recipients, was both arduous and complicated.